


dawn on the side

by translation



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Cliche, Ficlet, M/M, word vomit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-27
Updated: 2017-12-27
Packaged: 2019-02-22 12:34:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,087
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13167033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/translation/pseuds/translation
Summary: Mingyu discovers the color of light.





	dawn on the side

**Author's Note:**

> "[dawn on the side](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-N-Y0Ztn8A4)" by nujabes
> 
>  
> 
> forgive typos! i wrote this in an hour at 2 am.

I.

There’s a solid warmth in the room, tangible, where the window lets the light flood in through it’s old wooden windowpane. Mingyu thinks the color of light is maybe yellow and white at the same time--light itself, not the colors it creates. Dust floats in the air and shimmers like specks of sun, and it disappears as soon as a cloud rolls over the sky, thick and slow. Shadows fall over the hardwood floors, worn soft from the years of treading, mistreatment, care, life. 

It’s so early in the morning Mingyu can’t hear any steady traffic outside, but he swings his legs over the bed anyway. Bare feet press into the wooden floor, and it’s strangely cold even in the sun because of the freezing weather. He can’t remember the last time it was this cold here, and he doesn’t know whether to be grateful for it or resent it.

He’s wearing an thrifted pair of exercise shorts he is sure are from the ‘80’s, having picked them up in some shitty Goodwill on the side of town he grew up on in some shitty compulsive mood to revisit painful nostalgia. It wasn’t as romantic as he imagined it. And the drive there was filled with two almost-car-accidents and his locking the keys in the car. In rage, frustration, giving up, self pity, and maybe humiliation he thought he’d get something out of it. Something. And that something happened to be a teal, strange-feeling-fabric pair of shorts maybe too short for him, a kitten coffee mug, and a cliche crime novel in paperback with burned corners from a familiar Goodwill that is now not so familiar.

Mingyu slips into a pair of sandals, slips out the door, and slips in the small apartment building’s back alley.

From the ground, looking up at a cloudy sky, elbows smashed into the asphalt, Mingyu thinks light may actually be a blue-silver. Mingyu lets the stupid thought fly away (with some force) as he attempts to grab a mental hold on the problem at hand and the burning scrapes on his arms.

“Are you okay?” someone calls from behind him in a panic. Mingyu leans his head back, hair falling with it, as he watches a worried man run dumbly to him with a five bags of groceries hanging from both of his arms. Mingyu laughs, and he’s not sure at what.  
  
  
II. 

Seokmin comes over a lot. Mingyu can’t say exactly how him treating Mingyu’s childishly scraped elbows in his apartment led to this recurring meeting, but it did. Seokmin’s being just seems so naturally inviting, that he it’s only natural to accept him over? Mingyu thinks. Mingyu can’t say no to such a big smile when he sees him passing by in their apparently shared hallway? Mingyu thinks.

Maybe Mingyu is accidentally inviting him over, and Seokmin is so nice he can’t say no. Mingyu doesn’t really know. He’s made a friend though. 

They don’t really do anything. They talk about things--they don’t have much in common. They drink. Cheap beer, cheap coffee. Seokmin lays on Mingyu’s ratty couch with his socks on while Mingyu stands barefoot in the kitchen, leaning onto the bar with his elbows, and they argue and laugh. Mingyu doesn’t know what he’s doing. It always feels like he’s walking around out of his body.

Seokmin talks a lot. Mingyu does, too, but this isn’t about Mingyu. Well, actually, it is. But that’s not what Mingyu means. Seokmin talks a lot, and Mingyu thinks the color of light is probably some kind of melody with piano, wind instruments, and percussions that swirl around together and somehow make a pretty sound.

Some days Seokmin spends hours there, and those _some days_ eventually add up into months.  
  
  
III.

This friendship becomes confusing, and Mingyu’s not sure if it’s inherent--if this friendship really is confusing--or it’s just him. 

Seokmin laughs at his jokes after all these months, and the out of body experience has been replaced with an insatiable desire to be in the presence of another.

Seokmin is comfortable. Mingyu enjoys his loud laughter and Seokmin’s own bad jokes. When he talks so loud the entire street corner pauses to turn to look at him. When they go to that expensive grocery store a street over and he insists on buying yerba mate because it’s better for you than coffee, but his budget can’t allow him to splurge on it, so Mingyu has to towe him away from the tea and coffee aisle quite literally. 

And Mingyu wasn’t sad before, so it’s not this amazing feat of finding something in some kind of uncomfortable loneliness. Mingyu wasn’t lonely before. Seokmin just makes an already okay life even better? Mingyu thinks there’s no shame in admitting that. Finding comfort in other people is human nature.

Maybe light is colorless? Nah, it can’t be.

III.5

Mingyu kisses Seokmin in the back alley of their apartment after a night of bar hopping on their ugly corner of town. Their down jackets are heavy and Mingyu’s armpits are sweating in ten degree weather. His face is red from drinking, and even in this terrible setting, Mingyu thinks the color of light is just soft and maybe prickly.  
  
  
IV.

Orange-pink cascades out of the window, and Mingyu can’t believe colors like this can exist because of the sun shining at a certain time of day alone. There’s probably more science to it than that, but Mingyu is going to university for a business degree. He wouldn’t know.

The warmth and plushness of the bed underneath sucks him in and overwashed covers drape over his bare shoulders. He’s been in bed this entire day, drifting in and out of sleep, the (still unspecified color of) light shining through his curtainless window like it does everyday. 

This bed isn’t big enough for the two of them, so Mingyu rolls carefully onto his side.

Seokmin is asleep, and that orange-pink settles over his face and dips into his features, shining onto his dark hair prettily. Mingyu smiles and a small, disbelieving laugh escapes his chest and nose before he presses his forehead into Seokmin’s shoulder. He’s sure his hair tickles Seokmin’s chin.

“What?” Seokmin says, voice distant, still mostly asleep. 

“Just had a revelation,” is all Mingyu says, face now pressing into the softer part of Seokmin’s arm.

“You? A revelation?” Seokmin’s eyes are still closed, and Mingyu can hear the teasing smile in that sleep filled mouth.

“Mhm.”

**Author's Note:**

> this could have been better.
> 
> comments/kudos appreciated T_T


End file.
